Vegetable shredder



Feb. 26, 1957 K. ZYSSET vscamsm SHREDDER 2 Shee ts-Sheet 2 Filed March 11, 1954 United States Patent VEGETABLE SHREDDER Karl Zysset, Lyss, Switzerland Application March 11, 1954, Serial No. 415,628 2 Claims. (Cl. 146160) Manually operable vegetable shredders are known which comprise a bell-like housing adapted to be put over the goods to be shredded, and cutting means disposed in said housing and depressable by hand against the action of a spring, said means when actuated being rotated step by step with the aid of an automatically acting indexing device.

In such known shredders, the cutting means such as a steel blade provided with a knife-edge, at each upward or downward stroke is moved by the indexing device during the entire stroke.

Such known shredders, however, do not operate satisfactorily in that when the knife rotates during the entire upward stroke, the goods are angularly moved on their bed by the cutting means, thus rendering ineffective the stepwise rotation for its major portion. Such adverse conditions are aggravated when the knife rotates during the downward stroke. A further disadvantage of such known shredders is that the stem which carries the cutting means and the actuating member, has to be provided with helical grooves on a length at least equal to the stroke, whereby the manufacture of the shredder and the cleaning thereof is rendered complicated and difficult.

Said disadvantages are eliminated by the shredder disclosed by my present invention in that the cutting means are moved through a definite angle only in the last stage of the upward stroke.

In the shredder disclosed, the cutting means are constituted by a single sinuous steel strip passing through a continuous slot of a wiper cup which is rotatably disposed in the housing. If the wave line of such steel strip is made more or less sinuous, the shredded goods are prevented from being seized between the various sections of the meander knife. Such arrangement also eliminates the disadvantage arising in shredders having a stack of parallel knives.

To provide for easy cleaning of the shredder, the housing suitably is not made of one piece but rather of two portions detachable from each other, which when interconnected hold a wiper cup so that the latter is rotatable but not axially movable, whilst said wiper is readily removable when the two portions are disengaged from each other.

One form of my invention is shown in the accompanying drawings, in which- Fig. 1 is a vertical section substantially on the line 1-1 of Fig. 2 in which the cutting means is in the raised position,

Fig. 2 is a horizontal section on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1,

Fig. 3 is a section similar to Fig. l on the line 3-3 of Fig. 2 with parts broken away, but in which the cutting means is in a partly lowered position, and

Fig. 4 is a partial view of a checking member which is turned through 90" from the position shown in Fig. 1.

The shredder shown comprises a bell-like housing made up of a lower portion 1 and an upper portion 2 of transparent plastic such as polystyrene. These two portions are interconnectable by means of threads 1a and 20 so Patented Feb. 26, 1957 as to be readily detachable from each other for cleaning purposes. Housing portion 2 on top is formed with an integral depending boss or socket 2d on the inside of which are provided six helical grooves 2e. A plurality of ribs 2 reinforce the transition part between housing portion 2 and socket 2d. To the lower end of a stem 4 which is provided with a handle 6, is secured a prismatic rod 7 standing at right angles thereto. The rod 7 traverses without play a plurality of openings 8a of a meander steel strip 8. The latter is formed with a knife-edge 81) on the bottom and, when operating stem 6 is depressed, acts as a knife for shredding the goods put in the lower open space of the applicance. A compression spring 5 disposed between a recess 20 in a shoulder 2b of housing portion 2 and handle 6, after actuation of the latter returns blade 8 to its upper initial position.

A wiper cup 3 serves to clean the multiple-bent knife blade during the upward stroke thereof. In the operating position of the shredder, said wiper cup bears on a shoulder 11; of the cylindrical housing portion 1 and is freely rotatable when the two housing portions 1 and 2 are screwed together, but the wiper has practically no play in the axial direction. When the two housing portions are unscrewed, the wiper cup is readily removable. From the apex of a wave line formed by a slot 3b for knife blade 8, extend a plurality of stiffening ribs 3a from two sides, which brace the wiper cup.

As mentioned in the introductory part of the description, the shredder is provided with an automatic indexing device which acts to angularly move the cutting means. Said device, in contradistinction to known shredders, initiates the rotary movement only during the last stage of the upward stroke. Said device in the present case comprises on one hand the socket 2d with helical guide grooves 22 and, on the other hand, a checking member disposed on the lower end portion of stem 4. This checking member comprises a metallic ring 10 which is freely rotatable on stem 4, a sleeve 9 which is non-rotatable with respect to the latter and has two diametrically opposite earns 90, and a torsion spring 11 coiled about stem 4 and of which the lower end 11a is anchored in sleeve 9. The latter is cast or pressed as one piece of splinterproof plastic such as nylon. The checking member is prevented from axial movement on one hand through a stud 12 fixed to stem 4 and, on the other hand, through rod 7 against which abuts a metallic washer 9b of the checking member.

The shredder shown operates as follows. When depressing knife blade 8 by means of handle 6, the checking member is rotated owing to the cams 9a being engaged in two guide grooves 2c in the sense of separating the spring 11 from stem 4. The friction between the operators hand and handle 6 is considerably greater than that between spring 11 and stem 4 so that knife blade 8 cannot rotate. After releasing the handle, the knife first moves straight upwardly under the action of spring 5. In the last stage of such upward movement, the cams 9a of the checking member are engaged in the guide grooves 2e. Owing to the rotary movement of sleeve 9 enforced thereby, spring 11 is put tightly about stem 4 whereby the latter is coercively rotated during the remaining stage of the upward stroke. After each operation of depressing knife 8, the latter is moved through a certain angle shortly before reaching its position of rest.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

1. In a vegetable shredder comprising a two-part belllike housing having an upper and a lower portion and adapted to be put over the goods to be shredded, and a knife blade manually depressable by a spring-loaded actuating stem which has a lower end portion, said blade being mounted on the latter and on each actuation being angularly movable by an automatically-operating indexing device, the improved indexing device including a socket in the upper housing portion, said socket having a plurality of internal helical grooves, and a checking member rotatably but axially immovably mounted on the lower end-portion of the stem, said checking member comprising a ring seated on said stem portion, a sleeve mounted on said ring and having two diametrical cams engageable in said grooves, and a helical torsion spring disposed in said sleeve and coiled about said stem portion, one end of the spring being anchored in the sleeve and the other bearing on said ring; the whole in such combination that on depressing the stem the checking member in the first stage is rotated in one direction relatively to the stem and the spring is disengaged from the latter, while the stern and knife blade are not rotated, and that in the last stage of the stems upward movement the spring engages the stem and the latter together with the checking member and knife blade are rotated in the other direction.

2. A vegetable shredder as set out in claim 1, in which the knife blade is sinuous, a wiper cup is rotatably but axially immovably mounted in the lower portion of the housing for clearing the blade on the upward stroke thereof, said blade passing through a continuous sinuous slot in the bottom of the wiper cup, and a blade-carrying rod passing in tight fit through a plurality of openings in the blade and being secured to the lower end portion of the stem.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2.l40,0ll) Hanel Dec. 13, 1938 FOREIGN PATENTS l55,720 Switzerland Sept. 16, 1932 

